3. THE VIETNAM WALL
by Alberto Rios

4. Background: Vietnam War
One of longest and most contentious conflicts in U.S.
History
Resulted in the deaths of almost 60,000 US soldiers
and more than a million Vietnamese, who still refer to the war as “the American War”
The war’s casualties and costs divided the people of the U.S.; protests erupted
Vietnam Veterans Memorial sought to bring Americans together and to heal the wounds caused by the war

5. Background: Vietnam Memorial
Dedicated in 1982 to commemorate the 2.7 million men/women who served in the conflict
Approximately 58,272 names inscribed on the wall in chronological order from first death, injury, and missing-in-action date to the last
Polished black granite wall was designed by Maya Lin
Was designed to be a place of reflection and harmony without any political message

6. POSER: On your own paper, use the chart to analyze the picture.
PEOPLE
OBJECTS
SETTING
EVENT
RELATIONSHIP/
RELATING
SYNTHESIS QUESTION
This is the question that you will answer after reading the poem.
How does the picture reinforce the central message of the poem, Vietnam Wall?

7. About the Poem: “The Vietnam Wall”
One-stanza poem with no apparent rhyme scheme
A picture poem designed to resemble the shape of the Vietnam Memorial
Author, Alberto Rios, is Arizona’s first poet laureate

8. Now are you ready to…
…demonstrate your understanding of what the poem says?
That means that you understand the figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in order to articulate what is stated and implied by the language of the poem.

9. What is stated? What is implied?
The Vietnam Wall by Alberto Rios I
Have seen it
And I like it: The magic,
The way like cutting onions
It brings water out of nowhere.
Invisible from one side, a scar
Into the skin of the ground
From the other, a black winding
Appendix line.
A dig.
An archaeologist can explain
1 min. – Turn & Talk (to your shoulder buddy)
1 min. – Now Jot (Write your 2 sentence response.)
Let's share!

10. What is stated? What is implied?
The walk is slow at first
Easy, a little black marble wall
Of a dollhouse,
A smoothness, a shine
The boys in the street want to give.
One name. And then more
Names, long lines, lines of names until
They are the shape of the U.N. building
Taller than I am: I have walked
Into a grave.
And everything I expect has been taken away, like that, quick:

11. What is stated? What is implied?
The names are not alphabetized.
They are in the order of dying,
An alphabet of – somewhere – screaming.
1 min. – Turn & Talk (to your shoulder buddy)
1 min. – Now Jot (Write your 2 sentence response.)
Let's share!

12. What is stated? What is implied?
I start to walk out. I almost leave
But stop to look up names of friends,
My own name. There is somebody
Severiano Rios.
1 min. – Turn & Talk (to your shoulder buddy)
1 min. – Now Jot (Write your 2 sentence response.)
Let's share!

13. What is stated? What is implied?
1 min. – Turn & Talk (to your shoulder buddy)
1 min. – Now Jot (Write your 2 sentence response.)
Let's share!
Little kids do not make the same noise
Here, junior high school boys don’t run
Or hold each other in headlocks.
No rules, something just persists
Like pinching on St. Patrick’s Day
Every year for no green.
No one knows why.

14. What is stated? What is implied?
1 min. – Turn & Talk (to your shoulder buddy)
1 min. – Now Jot (Write your 2 sentence response.)
Let's share!
Flowers are forced
Into the cracks
Between sections.
Men have cried
At this wall.
I have
Seen them.

15. What is the poem's message?
Turn & Talk… Then Jot
What is the poem's message?

16. Remember that synthesis question from POSER?
How does the picture reinforce the central message of the poem, “Vietnam Wall”?
Plan and write a one-paragraph response to the synthesis question.
Keep the elaboration rubric in mind as you write.
SCORE GROUPS
RATIONALE 4
-states the claim/answer very clearly
-thorough evidence/support 3
-states the claim/answer clearly
-adequate evidence/support 2
-states the claim/answer somewhat clearly
-superficial evidence/support 1
-states the claim/answer unclear or unrelated
-minimal evidence/support